Pulling the Plug on Anti-Chavez TV

PULLING THE PLUG ON ANTI-CHAVEZ TV
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Juan Forero]
As President Hugo Chavez accelerates his country's shift toward "21st-century socialism," a decision not to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) is among the government's more dramatic steps, and one that has caused serious concern among free-press advocates. While Venezuelan officials have accused the 54-year-old station of having collaborated with organizers of a 2002 coup against President Chavez, the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, the Organization of American States and the Catholic Church have warned that press freedoms in Venezuela are in danger. The case has attracted widespread attention from officials in Washington and Latin America, for whom the non-renewal of a license has echoes of right-wing dictatorships of the past, when newspapers and broadcasters were closed if they veered from the party line. Though self-censorship and slayings of journalists remain common, particularly in Colombia and Mexico, the closing of a media outlet for political reasons has not occurred in years. Inside RCTV, actors make racy soap operas about love gone bad while an influential television host pillories President Chavez. Outside the station, none of that sits well with Alberto Carias, a beefy man with a bullhorn whose agitated followers promise that the days of RCTV are numbered. He makes no pretense about who made the decision -- the president, who is poised for sweet revenge against one of his most dogged antagonists, known here by its call letters, RCTV. "Here they practice yellow journalism, treacherous journalism that goes against the people's rights," Carias told a crowd earlier this week. And then, discussing the entertainment side, he said: "The children are the ones affected for many years by the sex, by the violence of these programs that go against the morality of children, that go against the morality of the Venezuelan people."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/17/AR2007011702003.html
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